


the only people for me are the ones who burn, burn, burn

by bookishandbossy



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Canon-Compliant, Developing Relationship, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-09-13 08:17:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9114685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookishandbossy/pseuds/bookishandbossy
Summary: Maybe they were always meant to be stardust. (Jyn and Cassian, in reverse.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> Because I haven't been able to stop thinking about these two since I saw Rogue One.
> 
> Title from On the Road by Jack Kerouac

6\. Maybe they were always meant to be stardust.

5\. There is nothing and everything between them and it has been such a very long time since anyone held on to her like this. Cassian's arms are tight around her and she can feel electricity crackle everywhere that they touch, zipping down her spine and spreading out from where his hands are splayed across her back and in the thump of his heart against hers, and she—she wants so many things that she is never going to have. There are maybes and what-ifs buried in the feeling of his hand in hers, the ships she'll never learn how to fly and the missions they'll never go on and the things they'll never tell each other, and for a moment she wants to scream at the unfairness of it all. But she has the memory of his mouth on hers and the knowledge that the plans are with the Rebellion and she has a scrap of hope. It's battered and rough and small, but it's something. 

Maybe she always knew that her story was never going to end happily. But it began with a little girl hiding in the dark, trying to shut her eyes against the memory of her parents, and it will end with her in the sunlight, holding on to Cassian as tightly as she can. And if she is going to be with anyone at the end of the world, she's glad that it's him. 

So she closes her eyes and she tries to memorize the way that he feels in her arms and she thinks about stars dying and being reborn. And she thinks that dust from the same star must have worked its way into both their bones. 

4\. He knows that he's never going to kiss her again but he does it anyway. They're in the elevator as it speeds downward, bloody and battered and swaying against each other, and everything aches. (His chest, his arms, his legs, his mind, his heart.)

“I thought you were dead,” she rasps out.

“Couldn't leave you,” he says. Couldn't leave without her, he means.

Maybe she's the one who kisses him. Maybe he's the one who kisses her. Maybe they meet in the middle, all lips and teeth and beating hearts. Her mouth tastes like blood and steel and, underneath all of it, like something soft and new and her hands dig into his shoulders hard enough to bruise and his mouth leaves a trail on her neck and they will leave their marks on each other until the end. 

Jyn's kissing him like she wants to claim him, mouth fierce on his, and he wants to tell her that she's already etched into the core of him. He knew it when he offered himself up for her impossible mission, when he promised that he would stay for however long it took. But really she's been scoring herself on his heart from the very beginning, from the first time their eyes met and he felt that electric kick spark through his veins. (Maybe she really is stardust, bright and shining and impossible to hold on to for long.) Cassian wants to tell her so many things. But when the elevator doors slide open and they pull apart with a gasp, he hopes that she already knows all of them.

3\. When he says that he'll go with her, she wants to—well, she wants him . It surprises her. It really shouldn't. 

Years and years ago, home was the sandy stretch of the beach and the waving grass of the land outside their house and the warmth of her parents' smiles. Jyn used to know its geography by heart. She could have walked her house blindfolded or been able to tell exactly where she was on the beach by picking up a handful of sand. But since then, she hasn't stayed anywhere long enough to remember it. Planet after planet, sand and ice and water and earth, stars flashing by so quickly that they blur before her eyes...the only things that she seems to memorize are the things that she's lost.

But Cassian promises her things with eyes that holds steady and Cassian tells her “welcome home” and when she closes her eyes, he's stamped there. She knows how quickly he can reach for his blaster and the different shades of brown in his eyes and the hint of his smile. And she wonders when he let her knew him. Maybe on Eadu, where he didn't pull the trigger. Maybe on Jedha, where he pulled her up from the ground and took that thin sliver of hope to the Rebellion. Or maybe on the ship, when he pressed a blaster into her hands and didn't take it back. 

Jyn tells him stories on the way to Scarif. Stories about the people and planets she's run from, about the things she's said and done, about the strange creatures she's met in bars and the stranger alcohols she's drunk in them, about the days she'd like to forget and the ones she'll remember for as long as she can. He takes every little piece that she offers up and gives her something in return. 

 

2\. He doesn't like her. Not exactly. Jyn Erso inspires a welter of feelings in his head that he doesn't have the time to pick apart. She makes something itch in the back of his head, makes him feel restless and unsettled and like he's missing something that should be right in front of him.

He'd like to trust her. He's not sure if he should. “Would you like to know the probability of her overpowering both of us with that blaster and flying the ship to the farthest edge of the galaxy?” K2 asks. 

No, he would not. He thinks she might defy probability.

 

He doesn't like her. Not exactly. He admires the steel that runs through the core of her, the snap and sparkle in her eyes, and something catches in his throat when he thinks about her diving to save that child on Jedha. “Would you like to know the probability of her leading us both into disaster?” K2 asks.

No, he would not. He's been headed for disaster his whole life anyway.

 

He doesn't like her. That's not the right word for it. But he'll go wherever she does. “Would you like to know the probability that you are fall--” 

He glares at the droid before it can say anything else. 

 

1\. The first time she sees him, something sparks and catches fire.

The first time he sees her, he burns too.


End file.
